On August 3rd, activists of the radical far-left Antifa staged a protest against an AfD district party conference in the western German town of Unna.
Many of the demonstrators covered their faces with scarves and sunglasses, despite Germany’s legal ban on facial concealment at public gatherings.
A person is considered to be masked if the identity of the person can no longer be established through clothing that covers the face. The aim of the ban on masking is to make it more difficult for individuals to commit crimes anonymously at such events.
Yet, according to news reports, the Unna police made no serious effort to enforce this rule.
Police chief Uwe Bergmeier justified the decision by citing an exception in the law that allows face coverings for weather protection. “In this case, the conditions for such an exception were given due to the sun,” Bergmeier said.
But whether a scarf and sunglasses were truly necessary is questionable: according to Apollo News, weather data shows that the maximum temperature that day in Unna was just 22.7°C—hardly a reason for anyone to conceal their face.
The police said they reminded demonstrators of the ban and intervened only once: a protester with a megaphone was warned for wearing a scarf too high. Beyond that, officers tolerated widespread masking.
This selective application of the law once again raises questions about Germany’s double standards when dealing with political movements.
Left-wing groups like Antifa routinely employ intimidation tactics and violence, yet authorities often downplay or excuse their conduct.
Conservatives and right-leaning voices, on the other hand, find themselves under constant suspicion, with the AfD subjected to surveillance by domestic intelligence.
In fact, far-left activism is not only tolerated but even rewarded by Germany’s ruling elites.
As we previously reported, Thuringia’s state government handed a “Democracy Award” to an Antifa-linked group. Earlier this year, the governing centre-right CDU named a pro-Antifa LGBT activist as its federal queer commissioner. An extremist from the Antifa-affiliated Hammerbande in Hamburg, with a record of violent attacks, even received taxpayer-funded arts subsidies.
Mainstream German politicians even had the audacity to travel to Hungary to express their support for another Hammerbande member who is in pre-trial detention for brutally assaulting ordinary Hungarian citizens on the streets of Budapest.
